Principal's Weekly Update

Dear St. Mary's families,

It is with great excitement and enthusiasm that I greet you as we continue onto the second half of the academic year. I want to begin by expressing my gratitude to each of you for making St. Mary's the school that it is. Each family and student plays a unique and unrepeatable role which makes our school so special. In addition, I have learned so much from the talented staff and faculty, and I can't thank them enough for all the countless hours and late nights spent ensuring these students receive the best education.

It's a privilege to be a part of such a beautiful and powerful common mission: the education of tomorrow's generation. Thank you also for permitting me to be a part of this community. I'm continually struck by your generosity and welcoming spirit.

Finally, I want to express my gratitude to all the students for making all of this work worthwhile. I can't express how many times I am inspired by each of you and your desire to learn and grow. Please know that you will continue to be in my prayers as we continue this school year and feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.

February 12th:

• Boston Winter Walk - Copley Plaza from 9 - 11 am

February 13th:

• Extra Band Day, Band students in K2-8 must bring their instruments

February 16th:

• Pizza Thursday or Home Lunch, no Brookline Lunches Served

February 17th:

• Carnival Breakfast Party for Lunchtime

February 20th-24th:

• No School- February Vacation

February 27th:

• March Matching Challenge begins

March 1st:

• Middle School Family Meeting (Field Trip Zoom)

March 10th:

• Admissions Open House 9 am

March 13th:

• Extra Band Day, Band students in K2-8 must bring their instruments

March 16th:

• Pizza Thursday or Home Lunch, no Brookline Lunches Served

March 17th:

• No School - Pastor’s Day

Hi St. Mary's families I am happy to report 0 covid cases!

Enjoy your weekend!

Thank you to all families who have already completed their 2023-2024 re-enrollment packets. Please note that if the re-enrollment packet is not submitted by April 1st, your family's enrollment status will be considered withdrawn for the 2023-2024 academic year. If there are any extenuating circumstances regarding your family's decision to re-enroll, please make us aware as soon as you are able.

This week, Pre-K started their color exploration unit. Students are learning color names, color mixing, and noticing color in our environment. Student's have been exploring colors and color mixing through different art media, such as finger painting, watercolor painting, marble painting, crayons and markers, and collage making. Student's have also been exploring color with science materials, such as our sensory bottles and light table, and noticing how colors may change in different lighting.

Pre-K met with their 4th-grade buddies for a fun friendship bracelet-making activity! The fourth graders are great helpers and role models to our Pre-K friends and we love seeing their friendships grow as we build our strong school community!

Pre-K is also focusing on letter and color recognition and participated in fun sorting activities this week as we matched the colors and first letters of each of our friends' names with different classroom manipulatives!

K1 started our Artist Unit this week in conjunction with the Letter Oo from Handwriting without Tears, and the circle theme from Building Blocks.

Students learned about the abstract artist, Wassily Kandinsky Concentric Circles and Elmer the Elephant and Kandinsky. We then created Elmer the Elephant meets Kandinsky!!

We are also celebrating Black History Month by studying about various black inventors. Today we learned about George Crum the inventor of the potato chip. We also did our own chip taste test. BBQ was Mrs. Creamer's class favorite!

Kindergarten began their American Symbols unit. Students will be identifying America’s national symbols and discussing their importance to our country. This week, students learned about the American Flag. Students created their flags, as well as wrote and illustrated a page in their journals!

In Pre-k - K2 Spanish they learned all about "El Monstro de Colores" which is an exciting story in Spanish that speaks about emotions. The students played fun spelling games and also learned which colors were associated with which emotions.

This week in first grade students integrated their science and math curriculum. Students learned about King and Rockhopper penguins. Students were introduced to the concept of measuring inches with a ruler. They then used unifix cubes with their rulers to represent the size of the penguin!

The second-grade religion class had a mini field trip to the church where Fr. Bobby Leblanc introduced the students to the sacraments and explained the different statues and paintings.

In our new Unit in math, we have been introduced to new measurements. Today the focus was to learn more about the difference between "mass" and "weight." The students got to go around the classroom and feel, talk, and try to see a difference between three objects. These objects were paperclips, cubes, and clay.

Grade 4 is using our Bridges math curriculum to analyze and evaluate strategies for solving multi-digit addition problems. We examined the Standard Algorithm, Give and Take, and Split Them Up strategies for efficiency when solving on paper and mentally.

The fifth-grade class has been learning about erosion, weathering, and deposition during science. They worked in small groups to create posters that show the meaning of each and the effects that nature has on the formation of earth's minerals. Then they presented these wonderful posters to the class and even got to work on their public speaking!

7th and 8th Grade completed projects on different gods which are part of the Greek pantheon. They taught their peers about gods and goddesses. As well, they shared different stories from Greek mythology to acquire a deeper understanding of ancient history.

8th Grade has been learning about personal growth, living in society, and Catholic Social Teaching in their religion class over the last few weeks. They recently completed and presented a poster project on the main principles of Catholic Social Teaching focusing on human dignity, solidarity, and the human family's role in society.

Our eighth graders have been learning about atomic theory and structure. After learning about how Dimitri Mendeleev organized the modern periodic table of elements, eighth graders designed and presented their own periodic tables. They arranged a chosen interest (video game characters, songs, philosophers, etc.) into trends and families, just like Mendeleev.

In the Music and Movement club, they learned all about different Hispanic cultures and had a great time dancing along to different tunes and learning about the great diversity of Spanish cultures that exist throughout the world.

Today the girl's basketball team had a great practice and also had some fun together building community and fellowship among the different teammates which are from varying grades.

In K1 they created candy heart-inspired valentines day heart paintings. They worked together and had a great time collaborating and drawing.

Here are our student council representatives for the 7th grade. They did a wonderful job this morning leading the school in prayer and morning announcements.

On behalf of our middle school teachers and students. Thank you so much to all the families who generously donated to our community Drive for Boston’s healthcare for the homeless and the Brookline community fridge. We received many donations of sweatshirts, sweatpants, socks, hand warmers, coats and non-perishable goods. In the coming week, Saint Mary's staff will facilitate the delivery of donations. Thank you again for your generosity!

In accordance with the 40 CFR Part 763 (enacted by Congress in 1986) of the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA). Section 763.93 pertaining to the Asbestos in School Identification and Notification Rule, insert school name here hereby notifies all parties of the Asbestos Management Plan availability. The Asbestos Management Plan is available for review at the administrative office during regular campus operating hours. For additional information about AHERA or any specific questions regarding the Asbestos Management Plan, you may contact the main office.

Please find the links below to our social media pages. We have been constantly uploading posts and stories so if you are interested in seeing more of our day-to-day happenings, please follow us!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/st-mary-of-the-assumption-school

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stmaryschoolbrooklinema

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stmaryschoolbrookline/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/stmarybrookline